A look at NBA arenas comparable to the proposed venue for Sodo

All but five of the current NBA arenas have been built since 1990. There was an explosion of arena construction during the 1990s and early 2000s as cities worked to keep their NBA teams in state-of-the-art venues.

Seattle, as we know, fell victim to this trend. After a big renovation to KeyArena in 1995, SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz wanted another upgrade just a decade later. But Seattleites wouldn’t have any of it, and Sonics left town after Oklahoma City investor Clay Bennett bought the team.

The team had a new arena in OKC.

Now investor Chris Hansen, who grew up a Sonics fan in Seattle, wants to bring the NBA back to town. The only way he can do that, he says, is to build a new arena. He has proposed a $490 million venue for the Sodo neighborhood, to be financed mostly by his investment group but partially through public bonds.

The Seattle city and King County councils now must approve or reject Hansen’s plan. If the city gets a new venue, it will join the dozens of other cities that have invested in arena projects throughout the past two decades.

Here’s a look at the NBA arenas built since 1990 and how they stack up against Hansen’s proposed venue for Seattle.